Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has infected more than 180 million people worldwide. It is estimated that three to four million persons are newly infected each year, 70% of whom will develop chronic hepatitis. HCV is responsible for 50-76% of all liver cancer cases, and two thirds of all liver transplants in the developed world. Standard therapy [pegylated interferon alfa plus ribavirin (a nucleoside analog)] is only effective in 50-60% of patients and is associated with significant side-effects. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new HCV drugs.
Hepatitis C virus genome comprises a positive-strand RNA enclosed in a nucleocapsid and lipid envelope and consists of 9.6 kb ribonucleotides and has a single open reading frame (ORP) encoding which encodes a large polypeptide of about 3000 amino acids (Dymock et al. Antiviral Chemistry & Chemotherapy 2000, 11, 79). Following maturation, this polypeptide is cut into at least 10 proteins by cellular and viral proteases to produce the structural and non-structural (NS) proteins. In the case of HCV, the generation of mature non-structural proteins (NS2, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, NS5A, and NS5B) is effected by two viral proteases: 1) a metalloprotease that cleaves at the N52-NS3 junction; and 2) a serine protease contained within the N-terminal region of NS3 (NS3 protease) which mediates all the subsequent cleavages downstream of NS3. The NS4A protein appears to serve multiple functions including the NS4A/NS3 complex formation, which appears to enhance the proteolytic efficiency of the NS3 protein. NS5B (also referred to herein as HCV polymerase), possesses polymerase activity and is involved in the synthesis of double-stranded RNA from the single-stranded viral RNA genome that serves as the template. NS5A is a nonstructural 56-58 kDa protein which modulates HCV replication as a component of replication complex. NS5A is highly phosphorylated by cellular protein kinases and the phosphorylation sites are conserved among HCV genotypes (Katze et al, 2001; Kim et al, 1999)
The discovery of novel antiviral strategies to selectively inhibit HCV replication has long been hindered by the lack of convenient cell culture models for the propagation of HCV (“Recent Advances in Nucleoside Monophosphate Prodrugs as Anti-hepatitis C Virus Agents” Bobeck, D. R.; Coats, S. J.; Schinazi, R. F. Antivir. Ther. 2010; Book Chapter: “Approaches for the Development of Antiviral Compounds: The Case of Hepatitis C Virus.” Raymond F. Schinazi, Steven J. Coats, Leda C. Bassit, Johan Lennerstrand, James H. Nettles, and Selwyn J. Hurwitz in: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol. 189, 25-51: Antiviral Strategies; Edited by: Hans-Georg Kräusslich and Ralf Bartenschlager© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009). This hurdle has been overcome first with the establishment of the HCV replicon system in 1999 (Bartenschlager, R., Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 2002, 1, 911-916 and Bartenschlager, R., J. Hepatol. 2005, 43, 210-216) and, in 2005, with the development of robust HCV cell culture models (Wakita, T., et al., Nat. Med. 2005, 11, 791-6; Zhong, J., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2005, 102, 9294-9; Lindenbach, B. D., et al., Science 2005, 309, 623-6).
It would be advantageous to provide new antiviral agents, compositions including these agents, and methods of treatment using these agents, particularly to treat HCV and drug-resistant HCV. The present invention provides such agents, compositions and methods.